


Never Heal

by accurst_writer



Series: Old Wounds Never Heal (Clove's Backstory) [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26605675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accurst_writer/pseuds/accurst_writer
Summary: Cato learns the truth about why Clove is so determined to win the Games.
Relationships: Cato/Clove (Hunger Games)
Series: Old Wounds Never Heal (Clove's Backstory) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935487
Kudos: 7





	Never Heal

“Hey, Kentwell! What’s up?”  
Cato jogged down the stairs on his way to breakfast, and jokingly tried to shove Clove down them. This was routine, for them. Almost getting into fights on the stairs.  
Today, however, she didn’t turn and shove him back. She stopped dead still in the middle of the flow of students, whipped around and punched him in the shoulder.  
“Fuck off, Hadley. I’m not in the mood.”

“Ow.” He rubbed the spot on his shoulder where she hit. “What did I do?”  
He didn’t get an answer as Clove sped up and disappeared into the crowd of people walking to the cafeteria. He gazed after her, bemused. “What’s her problem?”  
Maybe one of her knives had broken. That always put her in a mood. He remembered the time he’d accidentally broken her favourite knife. He still wasn’t quite sure how she hadn’t killed him. Possibly because she didn’t have a knife.

He didn’t see Clove at all at breakfast, but she couldn’t avoid him in training. They’d been training partners since she joined the academy, and you couldn’t just change that. However, it turned out that being training partners didn’t mean she had to talk to him.  
“Clove, what do you think of this move?”She didn’t even look up from where she was studiously examining the small iridescent flick knife she was holding.  
“Fine, yeah.”  
“Did you even look?”  
“Uh-huh”  
After an hour of this, Cato had had enough. He grabbed the flick knife off her.  
“Give that back, asshole.”  
“Make me.” He dangled it in front of her face, teasingly.  
“Fuck off” She grabbed it from him and walked away.  
Brutus spotted Cato standing on his own soon after, and walked over. “Where’s Clove?”  
“She… went to the infirmary. She felt ill. Probably girl stuff.” Even if she was unnaturally angry, he wasn’t going to let her get in trouble.  
Brutus nodded and left to go and deal with a kid who had knocked a target down.

Cato spotted her sitting at her usual table at lunch, staring into her plate. She was stabbing at her stew with her knife but not actually eating any of it. Mainly acting out of self-preservation, he decided to sit at another table.  
Cato listened to the hubbub of the cafeteria, hoping to distract himself from the way Clove was hunched over her plate. A couple of 12 year olds who were sitting nearby were gossiping about something.  
“Hey, did you hear?”“What?”“It’s the birthday of that insane Peacekeeper, yknow, the one who offed herself? There was a whole “in memorial” thing on tv today.”  
“Huh. Weren’t her family all like, super high-ranking Peacekeepers? After she died, I think her parents retired, and no-one really talks about them any more.”“Yeah, it’s weird, right? Like, I hear she was normal as a kid, too. I wonder what happened to her to make her go insane.”  
“I dunno. I’ll look her up next time we’re in the computer lab. Do you remember her name?”“Nah. I’m sure we could find it out-“

There was a loud smash from the other table. The entire cafeteria stared over. A plate was lying shattered on the floor, the gravy spilling out. The nearest door was swinging shut, with a glimpse of a girl’s uniform leaving. An iridescent flick knife was embedded in the table.  
“Wow, what’s her problem?” Muttered one of the twelve-year-olds.

Cato stood up, abandoning his half-eaten meal. He walked over to the other table and wrenched the knife out, carefully stepping around the gravy. He folded the knife-blade in and started running out of the still-moving door.  
“Kentwell?”No response. Ah well, he knew where she’d be. Her dormitory. And luckily, he knew where that was.

He knocked on the door, not expecting a response.“Clover, you’d best be decent, because I’m coming in.”  
When he pushed the door open, he saw Clove sitting on her bed.  
“Hey.” Cato waved gently and walked over, sitting next to her. “What’s up?”  
“Nothing.” She whispered, tiredly.  
“C’mon, you can tell me.”

“I was just pissed off. It doesn’t matter.”  
He rolled his eyes. “Clover.”  
She didn’t move, but took a breath. Cato started playing with her hair, which had come loose from its usual ponytail.“You know that Peacekeeper everyone’s talking about?”  
“The one that went insane and killed herself? Yeah.”  
“What was her name?”  
He looked down at her. Everyone knew about that Peacekeeper. It was only the ignorant kids who didn’t know her name.  
“Fennell, right? Fennell Kentwell.”  
It took him a few seconds to connect what he’d said and why the girl in his arms was upset.“Kentwell. Oh, fuck.”

Clove nodded, hiding her face in his jacket.“Who was she?”  
“My older sister. She basically raised me.”  
“Oh, Clover...”  
Cato didn’t know what to say. He’d never lost a family member like that. Everyone joked around Fennell’s death, regarding it as stupid and regarding Fennell as weak. Now he knew who she was to Clove, he could only imagine how much that must hurt. 

“I’m sorry.”  
He wasn’t even sure whether he was saying he was sorry about Fennell’s death, or if he was apologising for joking about it like everyone else.  
Clove straightened up, although she didn’t loosen her grip on his jacket. 

“Don’t be.”  
Her voice was cold, with an edge of steel, not dissimilar to one of her knives.  
“She was a disgrace to the Kentwell name. Too weak to cope with the situation she was in.”

Cato could tell Clove didn’t want to discuss this any further, so he nodded. Was that why Clove was so desperate to win the Games? To prove she was stronger than her sister, or to bring honour back to the Kentwell name? He hadn’t known anything could affect Clove so much. She must’ve been young, so what did she even remember?

He tried to remember anything else about Fennell Kentwell, but as her death had happened when he was about 8, his memory was hazy. 

There had been a scandal. He knew that. Fennell had been seen having a breakdown in one of the abandoned quarries, and the next day she had been found dead by...

Who had found her?

He watched Clove walking away.  
Had the first death she’d seen not been the kid she killed in a sparring match last year?  
Had it been her own sister?  
Had Clove ever recovered from that?


End file.
